This is Comfort. (Such a name for a repairer). She works with iStore Nigeria, the same place my damaged phone was bought.

Comfort, tinkering with my phone

After going through a few rounds of form-filling and questions, I was assigned to her. (I had miraculously found the receipt and was told it’s still under warranty!)

I handed my dead phone to her and simply said, “It isn’t powering”. She launched a diagnostics. I witnessed my first phone caesarean session.

She continued to tinker. I wanted to crack a joke about her “fingering skills” but I wasn’t sure she’d take it well. I just mellowed and kept watching.

I excused myself and returned after an hour.

She asked me to log into my iCloud account. Then another joke welled up and I wasn’t going to let this pass. I said “Oh, careful there, I’ve got some porn videos in there!” She smiled and gave me a Jesus-bless-your-soul kind of look.

I excused myself again and returned after a few minutes. Comfort handed me a form to fill in and, lo, she unboxed a new iPhone and handed it to me. I threw a questioning gaze at her and her colleagues. She warmly said, “Errm, yes, it’s a new one. We replaced it.”

I didn’t spend much time over thank-yous and pleasantries. I left before they change their minds.